


Malta Mermaid

by Brumeier



Series: Unexpected Discoveries 'Verse [4]
Category: Stargate Atlantis, Stargate SG-1
Genre: Alternate Universe, Community: ushobwri, Established Relationship, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Monster Hunters, Reality TV
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-07
Updated: 2015-10-07
Packaged: 2018-04-25 05:35:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,693
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4948615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brumeier/pseuds/Brumeier
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>The MU team is on the beautiful island of Malta, in the Mediterranean, to visit our old friends John and Rodney. They discovered the fabled Lost City of Atlantis not far from here, but that’s not the only amazing thing to be found in these waters. Members of the expedition have reported sightings of a creature that is partially human, and partially aquatic. Is there a mermaid living in the warm waters off the coast of Malta? That’s what we’re here to investigate.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Malta Mermaid

**Author's Note:**

> This is for [Monster Fest 2015 at the You Should Be Writing](http://ushobwri.livejournal.com/82198.html) comm on LJ, covering Mermaids & Sirens day.

_The MU team is on the beautiful island of Malta, in the Mediterranean, to visit our old friends John and Rodney. They discovered the fabled Lost City of Atlantis not far from here, but that’s not the only amazing thing to be found in these waters. Members of the expedition have reported sightings of a creature that is partially human, and partially aquatic. Is there a mermaid living in the warm waters off the coast of Malta? That’s what we’re here to investigate._

“Oh, no. What the hell are _you_ doing here?” Rodney looked at the stacks of equipment boxes in dismay.

“Surprise!” John said with an unrepentant grin.

Well, that was one mystery solved at least. Rodney’s husband had been acting weird for the last two weeks, with whispered phone calls and self-satisfied grins when he thought Rodney wasn’t watching. Out of all the possible reasons for that behavior, a surprise visit from the _Mysterious Unknown_ investigative team hadn’t even been on his radar.

“Nice to see you too, Rodney,” Kyle said. “Zee sends his regards. He’s visiting family.”

“This place is amazing!” Laura turned in a slow circle, taking it all in. “No wonder we don’t see you more. I’d never leave either.”

“Why are you here?” Rodney asked. “We don’t have any monsters or ghosts or anything else that needs investigating.”

“We’re here for the mermaids!” Evan replied brightly. He already had a camera out, filming the villa that John and Rodney were living in.

Rodney opened his mouth to give his opinion on the idea of mermaids – spoiler alert, it wasn’t good – but John smoothly cut him off.

“Come on, I’ll show you to your rooms.”

Clearly there were bigger problems than fish people. “Wait. What? Why are they staying here?”

Most of the expedition members were staying at hotels in Rabat, or renting rooms from locals. Rodney had insisted on renting a whole villa for himself and John, where he could have quiet and the space to work. All of the antiquities they’d thus far collected from Atlantis were locked in the basement, which had an empty but quite large wine cellar he’d been able to convert.

“They’re staying here because we have the room, and they’re our friends.” John gave Rodney a look, one which indicated that he wouldn’t tolerate an argument on the subject. Rodney wasn’t always great at reading people but then John wasn’t just anyone.

“Fine. Whatever. Just stay out of my way, I’m very busy.” Which, okay, wasn’t the whole truth. He’d been meeting with Dr. Jackson, which was boring in the extreme. Why did Rodney need to know about the fertility rites of the Sicani? Trust Jackson to translate the dullest inscriptions first.

As if summoned by Rodney’s thoughts Jackson ambled out of the house, nose slathered with zinc oxide and his arms full of rolled papers, no fewer than three dusty old books, and a tablet balanced precariously on top of the lot.

“Rodney? I’m going down to the vault, see if I can track down this reference to Zoroastrianism. It’s highly irregular, as you know, since the Mediterranean region at that time –”

“Yes, fine, whatever.” Rodney waved him off. More ancient religious nonsense that he didn’t care about, unless it led to something monumentally newsworthy.

“Hi there!” Laura put herself squarely in Jackson’s path and held out her hand. At some point she’d unbuttoned her plain khaki shirt to reveal a bright blue bikini top. “I’m Laura Cadman, one of the investigators with _Mysterious Unknown_.”

Jackson shifted his armload and shook Laura’s hand. She held on so long he ended up having to forcibly tug it out of her grasp. “Daniel Jackson. Nice to meet you. Um…okay.” He scuttled past Laura and made for the basement, which had outside access.

“That’s Dr. Jackson?” Laura looked accusingly at Rodney. “You didn’t tell me he was such a babe!”

“He’s not a _babe_. He’s an archaeologist, and he’s very busy. Put those things away and leave him alone.” Rodney waved his hand in the general direction of Laura’s bikini-clad breasts. Not that he thought Jackson would be at all swayed by an attractive woman in skimpy clothing – he was too focused on his work – but it wouldn’t do to have him constantly interrupted.

“Come on, guys.” John led everyone inside the villa, leaving Rodney out in the courtyard lamenting the loss of his privacy.

*o*o*o*

A surprising amount of artifacts had survived both the destruction of Atlantis and thousands of years buried at the bottom of the sea. Part of the job of cataloguing everything was doing 3D scans, which allowed the objects to be examined in detail without needing to be handled.

It was quiet work, even having Jackson in the vault with him matching scans to entries in the computer. The other man mostly muttered to himself as he tapped away at the laptop, making notes for himself when something caught his eye. Rodney was pretty good at tuning him out.

And then Laura was there, dripping all over the floor in her bikini and board shorts.

“What did you do, come right from the beach? I thought I told you –”

“John’s okay,” Laura said, interrupting him. If that was supposed to set his mind at ease, it failed tremendously.

“What happened?” Rodney asked, already out of his chair and on his way out the door, his heart pounding in his ears. He knew he shouldn’t have agreed to John joining Kyle’s stupid mermaid investigation, but John had used his ridiculous puppy dog eyes on him and he’d caved. Stupid! 

“He’s fine,” Laura insisted, trailing after him. “He’s upstairs. Ronon is stitching him up.”

“Stitches? He needs stitches?”

Rodney was running by the time he slammed through the kitchen door and fetched up against the cooking island. John was sitting at the table, his wet suit unzipped and pushed down to his hips. Ronon was in the process of sewing up what looked like a very deep gash across John’s ribcage. There was blood on the tile floor.

“I’m fine, Rodney,” John said. He didn’t open his eyes, though, and his pale face and clenched fists said otherwise.

“You’re not fine, you’re bleeding all over the kitchen! What the hell happened?”

“We were doing some preliminary filming,” Kyle said. He was leaning in the doorway on the opposite side of the kitchen. He’d had time to ditch his own wetsuit, but the form-fitting shirt he’d had on underneath it was spotted with blood. John’s blood.

“What was it? Was it a shark? Dammit, John, we’ve been out here how long with no-one getting seriously injured and as soon as Kyle gets here everything goes to hell!”

“Hey!” Kyle protested. “This was _not_ my fault.”

“It’s not anyone’s fault,” John said. He was clearly in pain, and Rodney wished there was something he could do. He hated to see John hurting, injured. Hated to think how easy it would be to lose him.

“We need to rewatch the footage, but what I saw of it was amazing.” Laura plopped herself on the kitchen counter, legs dangling. “We really got something.”

“Probably a devil ray,” John said. Rodney could tell he didn’t quite believe his own words.

“A ray with a shiv? I assume it got you through the wetsuit.”

“It wasn’t a ray.” Kyle had that gleam in his eyes, one Rodney was more than familiar with. He thought he was on to something. “It moved too fast. And no, Rodney, it wasn’t a shark. We picked up some really interesting sounds on the hydrophone.”

“All done.” Ronon set aside his needle and started prepping a bandage. “Keep an eye on it. I cleaned the wound but if reddens or gets really swollen you should go see a doctor right away.”

John nodded tersely, and hissed in a breath when Ronon smeared some antibacterial gel over the gash. “Wrap it up already.”

“I think we’ve really got something here,” Kyle insisted.

“You always think that,” Rodney snapped. 

“Rodney,” Laura said disapprovingly.

“Clear blue skies,” John said, and finally opened his eyes. He gave Rodney a weak smile, and tipped his head in a come-here motion.

“I wish you’d stop getting almost eaten by monsters,” Rodney complained. But he went to John and dropped down in the chair beside him. He took one of John’s hands in his, loosening the fist so that he could twist their fingers together.

“Not like I planned it,” John replied. He leaned forward and rested his forehead on Rodney’s shoulder. Rodney used his free hand to rub circles on John’s clammy back.

“I know. I just…don’t do that again.”

“Okay.”

Rodney pressed a kiss into John’s messy, wet hair. He hadn’t realized that everyone else had gone until he looked up and saw they were alone. He knew it wasn’t fair, blaming Kyle. He’d worked with the man long before John joined the MU team, he knew that sometimes things went awry during investigations. Rodney himself had almost died after falling off a boat in Oklahoma. But he couldn’t help wanting someone to lash out at when John got himself in harm’s way.

“So what do you think it was?” he asked.

“Don’t know. Not something I’d like to run into again.”

“I think you’d better stick to the submersible for the time being. Come on. Let’s get you upstairs so you can get changed.” Rodney helped John up. “Peel you out of that wetsuit.”

John waggled his eyebrows. “Oh, yeah?”

Rodney blushed, a clear picture popping into his mind of himself on his knees, John’s lean, naked body in front of him. They’d been married for six months now, but the lust that had been there since they met still hadn’t gone away. Rodney hoped it never did.

“One step at a time, Flounder.”

Any comments John might have had about his new nickname were lost in the kiss Rodney pressed to his lips, one hand curled possessively around John’s hip. Taking care of his husband was the most important thing, the _only_ important thing. He’d worry about murderous mermaids later.

**Author's Note:**

>  **AN:** So, the husband thing. I'm still working on the wedding installment of this series, but this obviously takes place after that. ::grins::


End file.
